The Artistic Young Dandy

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He was a child of Marseilles 'smart neighbourhoods'. His father, Victor-Charlemagne, was a company administrator. The politico-financial power of his uncle and godfather, the Senator Vincent Delpuelch is known to a select few but the man liked to stay in the shadows. At his death, Vincent inherited a fortune which, in addition to his earnings as a painter enabled him to escape the lot of the hungry wolf howling at the moon, as the accursed artist is portrayed in Epinal imagery.

An inattentive but talented boy, Vincent acquired a solid arts background, studying the humanities first at the school of the Marist fathers of La Seyne, and then at the Catholic college of Aix. The Law faculty of Aix tried to tempt him but failed miserably. His assured draughtsman's touch, excellent brushwork and exuberant inventiveness made him decide to go to study at the Beaux-arts of Marseilles.

 

The prizes that he received there and the success of his first exhibitions proved to his family that they had been wise not to stand in the way of his choice of vocation.

Many benevolent fairy godmothers watched over his cradle. His great capacity for hard work (which he always concealed out of vanity) allowed him to give full rein at one and the same time to his artistic career, to his social life and to the 'small pleasures in life'.

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Jean-Michel ROYER